Model Railway Wiring

Wiring and Soldering the Model Railway

 

Once you have decided on the type of controllers that you are to use and what your layout will look like then you can start to think about the wiring of your model railway. Wiring your model railway can be quite sophisticated or quite basic but that all really depends on the type of layout that the modeller is after. You could start with a basic wiring for your model railway and then in time add various sections of track with isolation switches or points and then later add electrically operated points. It is possible, therefore, to start off with a basic premise to model railway wiring which can then in time turn out to be quite complex.

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To understand how to complete your model railway wiring it is a good idea to understand how the train is actually powered. Most model railway layouts will have wiring to a two rail system. What happens is that when you connect your power supply to the rail and turn the power on then a current will run along one of the rails and come back via the other. When you place your train on the track the electrical current will flow through the train from rail to rail via the motor inside the train. During the process the motor will turn and move your engine forward. If you reverse the polarity of the current applied to the track via the controller then the current will flow in the opposite direction and your train will move in reverse.

A mistake for many a beginner with regards to their model railway wiring is in the introduction of a reverse loop into their layout.  In the diagram, below, we have a piece of track just off picture that has a set of points that go straight on and also up to the left. As you can see the – rail is at the top and the + rail is at the bottom and this exists for both the straight at the bottom and the piece of track coming off the points. The problem though is that when the loop comes around it will end up with the + and – tracks connecting to each other rather than their corresponding rail eg + to + and – to -. This means that as part of our model railway wiring we need to consider how to get over this problem because connecting the + to the – as this will result in us having a short circuit.

 

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In the diagram there is an isolated piece of track that has its own power supply. This means that once the train moves onto this piece of track then we can take over with a separate controller and then when it passes back onto the original line then the original controller can take over but the controller is now reversed so to move the train forward the controller has to effectively be in the reverse setting.  By wiring in a second controller onto the model railway layout it is possible to have a continuous movement for the train. Many layouts though will use only one controller and will therefore use a series of switches to reverse the polarity of the track. This is done whilst the train is stationary and is usually at a station that is on the loop.

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For a smooth running of the model railway it is usually best to connect your wiring directly to the track. This can be done in a couple of ways. The first way is for the model railway wiring to be soldered directly to the rail and the second way is for the model railway wiring to be soldered to the track connectors. Either of these methods will give a better connection for your model railway wiring than using special track or clips to make the connection and will ensure that your trains run smoothly.

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